Camden Hills to play in first regional hockey final

ROCKPORT, Maine — It has already been a year of firsts for Camden Hills hockey and the team would like to add another first to its resume on Wednesday night.

The Windjammers, who didn’t put their first varsity team on the ice until the 2005-2006 season, won a playoff game for the first time on Friday, 8-4 over York, and will play in their first regional championship game when they face defending state champ Greely of Cumberland Center in the Western Maine Class B title game at 7 p.m. at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston.

This will be the third time the two teams will have met since Feb. 11 and the Windjammers will be seeking their first win over the Rangers. Greely handled the Windjammers 9-1 on Feb. 11 but, four days later, Greely had to go overtime to triumph 4-3.

Top seed Greely and No. 2 Camden-Rockport are both 15-4.

Even though this will be the Windjammers’ first regional final and they will face a Greely team that has won two of the last four state Class B titles (2009, 2012), coach Karl Enroth said the 4-3 overtime loss “gave us a good amount of confidence.

“If we play hard the whole way through, we can hang with these guys. The guys have done a great job handling everything that has been put their way.”

Enroth acknowledged that they will be the underdogs and said the longer they can keep the game close, the better chance they’ll have of pulling off the upset.

“We have nothing to lose,” added Enroth.

Despite having a young team with just three seniors and 10 freshmen, Enroth said his team has jelled.

“Everyone has bought into their roles,” he said.

In order to beat Greely, he said his team will have to be disciplined, have a “high work ethic” and find a way to contain Greely’s top line of Ted Hart (31 goals, 15 assists), Reid Howland (19 & 16) and Mitchel Donovan (10 & 22).

“We’ve got to keep them to the outside,” said Enroth.

Camden Hills has a prolific top line of its own in Jack Orne (21 & 21), Grayson Szumilas (21 & 20) and Simon Lydon (14 & 12) and a second line featuring Stephen Hand (22 & 13) and James Annis (10 & 13). Cal Robbins (4 & 19) and Parker Lawson (3 & 7) have anchored the defense corps in front of freshman goalie Jet Magri.